Nick Scott Reviews: The Villa-Maison de retraite

Bonjour mes amis ARTbop. Avis sur Nick:- Maison de retraite – The Villa. French Film Festival 2022. ARTbop’s Nick Scott went along to the Rialto, Tauranga:-

One thing that the French do very well is comedy and the French Film Festival is a chance to find good examples of this.

The Villa is a mix of types of storylines you have probably seen before tied up in the setting of a Retirement Home.

A Young man on parole is given the chance to avoid prison by doing community service. Working with the elderly is not his idea of a good time, in fact he, expects to hate it.

The residents are not exactly welcoming. They are a charming assortment of mixed nuts, with some very touching sub-plots tied up in the relationships between them.

The most obvious plot is the fish-out-of-water story which is the source of much comedy, but then this is backed up by stories of fulfilment and growth both in the young young lead character and amongst the old people too.

Not so obvious but definitely adding to the comedy is good use of music. This is something you only recognise afterward but like a lot of other cinematic techniques it would leave a huge hole if it was removed.

Like many other French films, this one stars Gerard Depardieu, in a role which really suits his kind of acting. So, if you get the chance, go and see The Villa, probably the best French comedy I’ve ever seen.

Si bon…….!

Nick Scott Nick Scott has a B.A from The University of Waikato where he studied film under Sam Edwards. Nick has retained a keen interest in cinema. He studied Te Reo Maori at Te Wananga O Aotearoa part-time for 3 years and then from 2014 to 2016 Nick collaborated in writing “The Traveller’s guide to Maori Place Names”. Nick is a regular Film Reviewer on ARTbop and has contributed an episodic novel “Temple’s Job”, a creative’s Q&A and a short story Doppelganger (in WORDS)